Bangladesh Garment Factories Shut Following Violent Protests

Hundreds of Bangladeshi garment factories stayed closed on Thursday following protests and violence by garment industry workers who are demanding a higher minimum wage.

Sources said that around 50 apparel manufacturing factories were vandalised by workers on the outskirts of Dhaka, following which hundreds of factories shut their doors.

Thousands of apparel sector workers are protesting against the decision of the Minimum Wage Board to adopt Taka 10,400 as against the minimum monthly wage of Taka 20,393 demanded by workers.

After workers started a violent protest, Labour Minister Begum Monnujan Sufian assured workers by saying that the minimum wage would be set higher than what was proposed.

The workers are citing skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and the high inflation due to which they are seeking tripling of their minimum monthly wages from the current Taka 8,300.

Bangladesh has around 3,500 garment factories and is the third biggest global apparel exporter employing millions of workers and accounts for 85 percent of Bangladeshi overall exports.